As your host, I feel as though I’m expected to mark the end of the year by saying something insightful about all of the horrendous shit we’ve lived through these past twelve months, and how, having survived it all, we’re better positioned to move forward into 2013, kicking ass and bringing about positive, progressive change. Unfortunately, though, I’m not feeling it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’m demoralized… I think there is potential to make progress… but I just don’t have it in me right now to synthesize everything that’s sloshing around in my tiny brain pan, and present anything approaching a coherent plan for 2013. So, instead, I’m just going to share a single link, which I hope will bring you a little fleeting joy this cold winter night.
The link, for those of you who haven’t already clicked it, will transport you to my favorite online radio station, Radio Dismuke.
We can plan the revolution tomorrow. Tonight, let’s sit back, in the dark, sipping our drinks, and enjoying the beautiful music of our great grandparents… as they dreamed of the New Deal.
Something better is on the horizon, my friends.
11 Comments
We need to start a local progressive gun club. Nothing will bring about a ban on assault weapons faster than people like us buying them.
My thoughts this evening are with all of the people out there who have no friends or family to celebrate the holiday with. I know from personal experience how difficult it can be, and I just want to say that I’m thinking of you all. The world can be a cold and cruel place sometimes. Where there’s life, though, there’s potential for change, and hope for something better. Never forget that. Happy New Year.
And if you have a job that allows you to stay home on New Year’s Day, enjoy it.
“For most Americans, Christmas week represents about half of the time off we will enjoy all year long. Compared with Australians (at least 4 weeks off, plus 10 public holidays), Brazilians (22 days of paid leave with a 33 percent salary vacation bonus) and the French (at least 5 weeks off and as many as 9 for many public employees), we are seriously bereft. … [T]he United States is the only OECD country that does not require employers to provide even a day of paid leave to its employees.”
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/12/enjoy-the-years-vacation-1.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+andrewsullivan%2FrApM+%28The+Daily+Dish%29
It’s not exactly the second coming of the New Deal, but the “fiscal cliff” was averted last night. There are many that say the Democrats gave up too much, but I suppose it’s still something to be thankful for, in the same sense that someone who loses as arm in a thrasher should be thankful for not being pulled into the machine completely.
Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/fiscal-cliff/biden-mcconnell-continue-cliff-talks-as-clock-winds-down/2012/12/31/66c044e2-534d-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_story.html?hpid=z1
Speaking of young, bright people with weapons, have you seen this story out of New York yet?
“‘They’re well-to-do junkies not terrorists’: Top doctor’s daughter who gave birth after her arrest ‘for weapons and explosives’ is ‘heroin addict’ who had no plans for bomb plot”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255609/Morgan-Gliedman-Aaron-Greene-junkies-terrorists-police-say.html
I don’t want to detail your beautiful conversation, but I woke up this morning with an incredible hankering for a handjob, and, as I’m new to town, I thought that ask. So who gives the best handjobs in town?
By “detail” do you mean “derail”?
As for the best handjobs in town, the local landscape changed considerably with the closing of Ave Maria. No one, in their absence, has stepped up to take a leadership position. Hopefully that will change in 2013.
We ended up staying in, listening to guys playing 100 year old Edison wax cylinders, and playing charades by firelight. A new tradition has been born.
I received this from Gretchen Whitmer and thought that you might find it of interest.
Friends –
Let’s face it, 2012 was a year full of frustrations inside Michigan’s Capitol. We saw our Speaker of the House admit to playing a role in an election rigging scandal. We watched as our Governor lied to Michigan’s public and locked them out of the Capitol as he pushed through his politically fueled agenda. And we spoke out in protest time and time again as legislation was passed that took money away from middle-class families, kids and our communities to give it away instead to those already at the top.
Yet as difficult a year as 2012 was, ringing in the new year today provides us with an opportunity to focus on hope once again and discuss the positive action that Michigan must now take to make 2013 the beginning of a real change for our state and our families.
I believe we can turn Michigan around by reinvesting in what makes us great and that starts with our kids.
My Democratic colleagues and I have put forward a plan, the Michigan 2020 Plan, that would move Michigan to the head of the class by giving each and every high school graduate the opportunity to attend college and have it paid for in its entirety. It’s a plan economists, educators, parents and students all agree is the right plan to bring jobs to our state and provide a better future for our next generation. It’s a plan we can, and must, take action on.
I believe we can support our middle-class families by creating fair tax policies, not ones that give handouts to those at the top.
We can grow, not cut, the programs that get our unemployed and underemployed workers retrained and back on their feet so that they can find new jobs and new opportunities for themselves and their families.
I believe we can open our doors to graduates and young professionals by fostering the redevelopment going on in our urban areas and creating the atmosphere they look for when deciding where to work, live and start their own families.
We can foster an environment that welcomes the gay and transgender communities here to our state instead of inventing new reasons for them to leave.
And we can make it perfectly clear that there are opportunities here in Michigan that don’t exist anywhere else in the world for people, all people, to succeed in their own personal pursuit of happiness.
We can do all of these things, but only if we have the courage and the strength of character to make it happen.
I hope that Governor Snyder uses the New Year to think long and hard about what’s happened in Michigan’s Capitol over the past two years and spend some time talking, and more important, listening to the people he represents.
They are asking us to be leaders. They are asking us to be bold. They are asking us to make Michigan a place we can all be proud of again.
The voices of those I’ve had an opportunity to speak with in recent weeks would suggest that the Governor has been anything but that.
I believe we can do better. Let’s make 2013 the year we demand better!
Sincerely,
Gretchen Whitmer
Michigan Senate Democratic Leader
There hasn’t been a decent handjob in this state since Manhole disbanded.
Ypsilanti’s consultant recommends subverting the Affordable Care Act:
“SEMCOG noted that union negotiations may be required to permit such use of employees and cautioned the city to be careful to limit hours to less than 30 per week to avoid mandatory benefits outlined in the Affordable Patient Care Act. The Affordable Patient Care Act interpretation is evolving,” Boerger said. “As things are maturing, that criteria changes. Bottom line is if they can supplement existing employees with part time and keep them under the threshold, then the costs are significantly lower.”
http://annarbor.com/news/ypsilanti/semcog-2m-in-additional-cuts-revenue-enhancements-needed-to-get-city-on-solid-financial-footing/